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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Catwoman's Inspiration

New 52's Catwoman #1 ended with a sex scene between Batman and our heroine- which naturally caused a great deal of controversy in the comic book fan world, but I honestly wasn't astonished by this happening. Catwoman is easily one of the most sexually expressive superheroines who seems to be lacking in the morals department, and this is not the first time she's been intimate with Batman. Regardless, I was still curious about how Judd Winick (writer/artist of Catwoman) would address the upset caused by the end of the first issue.

"This is a Catwoman for 2011, and my approach to her character and actions reflect someone who lives in our times. And wears a cat suit. And steals." Honestly, I think people should find this far more insulting than the sex scene that took place. Does Catwoman's behavior really represent the behavior and character of women in our time? Perhaps I'm being optimistic/naive but I refuse to accept this justification of Catwoman's promiscuity. I really hope that Winick's implication was to make Catwoman a believable character from this decade rather than a representation of a vast majority of women.

6 comments:

I don't know the Catwoman character really well but I think that you should not fear that a writer would create one character to represent the entire female gender; however it is a believable character that probably represents a subgroup within the vast majority of women.

I would like to think Winick is not pinning this behavior on all of the women of our society. He seems to just be saying that Catwoman as a character is the type that would be promiscuous.I think the real controversy here is not that Catwoman and Batman had sex, but how it was portrayed. From what I've heard about this comic, the scene was fairly graphic, in an especially objectifying way in regard to Catwoman. I can accept that Catwoman's character would do this, but I don't think it was necessary to draw the scene out in such detail.

I agree, this is offensive. However, I think that Winick is trying to characterize a certain type of woman from the way he worded his phrase: "reflect someone who lives in our times," not all women. The seductress bad-ass type of woman is seen in many main-stream films (and comics). Let's hope he doesn't think all women are this way..rude!

I don't know Catwoman well, but based on what Winick has said/drawn, I'm not sure I would ever consider this Catwoman a winning superheroine. I also doubt that he meant that Catwoman was portrayed to represent "the women of our time," but so many things about this specific relaunch still rub me the wrong way.

I am the biggest cat woman fan and even I had a problem with this portrayal. In the past issues she is promiscuous but I feel like the new 52 took it to the extreme, it was extremely graphic and I felt uncomfortable reading; I felt like I was butting in on their sexual scene. The fact that cat woman is a cat automatically gives her a sexy sexy kitten vibe but with the new 52 she comes off as slutty and desperate. I feel that the more open society is the worst women are going to be perceived in these comics. Soon enough cat woman is only going to be covered in private places by strips of clothing - maybe even worse.

I read Catwoman for my dossier and although I liked that Catwoman was portrayed as a flawed bad ass chick with insecurities that make her more relatable, I did not like that the only way she got things was by using her sex appeal, so she comes off especially in the first two issues as overly sexual and dependent on Batman.